The river flows in Russia throughforests,forest steppes andsteppes. Five of theten largest cities of Russia, including the nation's capital,Moscow, are located in the Volga's drainage basin. Because the Volga drains into theCaspian Sea, which is anendorheic body of water, the Volga does not naturally connect to any of the world's oceans.
Some of the largestreservoirs in the world are located along the Volga River. The river has a symbolic meaning inRussian culture –Russian literature andfolklore often refer to it as Волга-матушкаVolga-Matushka (Mother Volga).
The RussianhydronymVolga (Волга) derives fromProto-Slavic *vòlga 'wetness, moisture', which is preserved in many Slavic languages,vlaga (влага) 'moisture',Bulgarianvlaga (влага) 'moisture',Czechvláha 'dampness',Serbo-Croatian:vlaga (влага) 'moisture',Slovenevlaga 'moisture',Polishwilgoć 'moisture' andMacedonianvlaga (влага) 'moisture', among others.[13]
TheScythian name for the Volga wasRahā,[14] literally meaning 'wetness'. This is related to theAvestan name for a mythical stream,Raŋhā (𐬭𐬀𐬢𐬵𐬁), which means "wet" or "moisture", and was derived fromProto-Indo-European*h₁res- or*h₁ers-).[15] This name can be compared to several Indo-Iranic terms, such as:
Sogdianrʾk (𐽀𐼰𐼸) 'vein, blood vessel' (from Old Iranian*rahaka),[16]
TheTurkic peoples living along the river formerly referred to it asItil orAtil. In modernTurkic languages, the Volga is known asİdel (Идел) inTatar,Atăl (Атӑл) inChuvash,Iźel inBashkir,Edıl inKazakh, andİdil inTurkish. The Turkic names go back to the ancient Turkic form "Etil/Ertil", the origin and meaning of which are not clear. Perhaps this form has a connection with the hydronymIrtesh.[24]
The Turkic peoples associated the Itil's origin with theKama.[25] Thus, a left tributary to the Kama was named theAq Itil 'White Itil' which unites with theKara Itil 'Black Itil' at the modern city ofUfa.[26] The nameIndyl (Indɨl) is used in theCherkess language.
In Asia the river was known by its other Turkic nameSarı-su 'yellow water', but theOirats also used their own name,Ijil mörön or 'adaptation river'. Presently theMari, anotherUralic group, call the riverJul (Юл), meaning 'way' inTatar. Formerly, they called the riverVolgydo, a borrowing fromOld East Slavic.[citation needed]
The Volga has manytributaries, most importantly theKama, theOka, theVetluga, and theSura. The Volga and its tributaries form the Volga river system, which flows through an area of about 1,350,000 km2 (521,238 sq mi) in the most heavily populated part of Russia.[3] TheVolga Delta has a length of about 160 km (99 mi) and includes as many as 500 channels and smaller rivers. The largestestuary in Europe, it is the only place in Russia wherepelicans,flamingos, andlotuses may be found.[citation needed] The Volga freezes for most of its length for three months each year.[3]
The fertile river valley provides large quantities ofwheat and other agricultural produce, and also has many mineral riches. A substantial petroleum industry centers on the Volga valley. Other resources includenatural gas,salt, andpotash. The Volga Delta and the Caspian Sea arefishing grounds.
The Volga–Oka region has been occupied for at least 9,000 years and supported a bone and antler industry for producing bone arrowheads, spearheads, lanceheads, daggers, hunters knives, and awls. The makers also used local quartz and imported flints.[27]
Duringclassical antiquity, the Volga formed the boundary between the territories of theCimmerians in the Caucasian Steppe and theScythians in the Caspian Steppe.[22] After the Scythians migrated to the west and displaced the Cimmerians, the Volga became the boundary between the territories of the Scythians in the Pontic and Caspian Steppes and theMassagetae in the Caspian and Transcaspian steppes.[23]
The area around the Volga was inhabited by theSlavic tribes ofVyatichs andBuzhans, byFinno-Ugric,Scandinavian,Baltic,Hunnic andTurkic peoples (Tatars,Kipchaks,Khazars) in thefirst millennium AD, replacing theScythians.[29][unreliable source?] Furthermore, the river played a vital role in the commerce of theByzantine people. The ancient scholarPtolemy ofAlexandria mentions the lower Volga in hisGeography (Book 5, Chapter 8, 2nd Map of Asia). He calls it theRha, which was the Scythian name for the river. Ptolemy believed the Don and the Volga shared the same upper branch, which flowed from theHyperborean Mountains. Between 2nd and 5th centuriesBaltic people were very widespread in today's European Russia. Baltic people were widespread fromSozh River till today's Moscow and covered much of today'sCentral Russia and intermingled with the East Slavs.[30] The Russian ethnicity in Western Russia and around the Volga river evolved to a very large extent, next to other tribes, out of the East Slavic tribe of theBuzhans andVyatichis. The Vyatichis were originally concentrated on the Oka River.[31] Furthermore, several localities in Russia are connected to the Slavic Buzhan tribe, like for exampleSredniy Buzhan in theOrenburg Oblast, Buzan and theBuzan River in theAstrakhan Oblast.[32] Buzhan (Persian:بوژان,romanized: Būzhān; also known asBūzān) is also a village inNishapur,Iran. In late 8th century the Russian state Russkiy Kaganate is recorded in different Northern and Oriental sources. The Volga was one of the main rivers of the Rus' Khaganates culture.[9]
Construction ofSoviet Union-era dams often involved enforced resettlement of huge numbers of people, as well as destruction of their historical heritage. For instance, the town ofMologa was flooded for the purpose of constructing theRybinsk Reservoir (then the largest artificial lake in the world). The construction of theUglich Reservoir caused the flooding of several monasteries with buildings dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. In such cases the ecological and cultural damage often outbalanced any economic advantage.[34]
During theRussian Civil War, both sides fielded warships on the Volga. In 1918, the RedVolga Flotilla participated in driving the Whites eastward, from the Middle Volgaat Kazan to the Kama and eventually toUfa on theBelaya.[35]
During the Civil War,Joseph Stalin ordered the imprisonment of several military specialists on a barge in the Volga and the sinking of a floating prison in which the officers perished.[36][37]
During World War II, the city on the big bend of the Volga, currently known asVolgograd, witnessed theBattle of Stalingrad, possibly thebloodiest battle in human history, in which the Soviet Union and the German forces were deadlocked in astalemate battle for access to the river. The Volga was (and still is) a vital transport route between central Russia and the Caspian Sea, which provides access to the oil fields of theAbsheron Peninsula.Hitler planned to use access to the oil fields ofAzerbaijan to fuel future German conquests. Apart from that, whoever held both sides of the river could move forces across the river, to defeat the enemy'sfortifications beyond the river.[38] By taking the river, Hitler'sGermany would have been able to movesupplies,guns, and men into the northern part of Russia. At the same time, Germany could permanently deny this transport route by the Soviet Union, hampering its access to oil and to supplies via thePersian Corridor.
For this reason, manyamphibious military assaults were brought about in an attempt to remove the other side from the banks of the river. In these battles, the Soviet Union was the mainoffensive side, while theGerman troops used a moredefensive stance, though much of the fighting wasclose quarters combat, with no clear offensive or defensive side.
Many different ethnicities lived on the Volga river. Numerous were the Eastern SlavicVyatchi tribes which took a decisive role in the development of modern Russians.[39][40] Among the first recorded people along the upper Volga were also the FinnicMari (Мари) andMerya (Мäрӹ) people. Where the Volga flows through the steppes the area was also inhabited by the Iranian people of theSarmatians from 200 BC.[41][42] Since ancient times, even before Rus' states developed, the Volga river was an important trade route where not only Slavic, Turkic and Finnic peoples lived, but also where theArab world of the Middle East met theVarangian people of the Nordic countries through trade.[43][44]
In the 8th and 9th centuries colonization began fromKievan Rus'. Slavs from Kievan Rus' brought Christianity to the upper Volga, and a portion of non-Slavic local people adopted Christianity and gradually becameEast Slavs. The remainder of the Mari people migrated to the east far inland. In the course of several centuries the Slavs assimilated the indigenous Finnic populations, such as theMerya,Meshchera andMuroma peoples. The surviving peoples ofVolga Finnic ethnicity include theMaris,Erzyas andMokshas of the middle Volga. Also Khazar and Bulgar peoples inhabited the upper, middle and lower of the Volga River basin.[45]
Apart from theHuns, the earliest Turkic tribes arrived in the 7th century and assimilated some Finno-Ugric and Indo-European population on the middle and lower Volga. The TurkicChristianChuvash andMuslimVolga Tatars are descendants of the population of medievalVolga Bulgaria. Another Turkic group, theNogais, formerly inhabited the lower Volga steppes.
The Volga region is home to a German minority group, theVolga Germans.Catherine the Great had issued a manifesto in 1763 inviting all foreigners to come and populate the region, offering them numerous incentives to do so.[46] This was partly to develop the region but also to provide a buffer zone between the Russians and theMongols to the east.[citation needed][47] Because of conditions in German territories, Germans responded in the largest numbers. Under the Soviet Union a slice of the region was turned into theVolga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
On 22 June 1941, Hitler started theGerman-Soviet War. On 28 August 1941, Stalin had thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR pass a decree ‘On the resettlement of Germans residing in the Volga region’.The approximately 400,000 remaining Volga Germans were accused of collective collaboration, deported toSiberia and Central Asia, and forced into labour camps of the ‘Labour Army’ (Трудармия); thousands of them died. Most Russian Germans (men and women) were ‘conscripted’ between October 1942 and December 1943.
In 1964, they were officially cleared of the accusation of collaboration, albeit with restrictions. (1964 marked the end of theKhrushchev era, which had begun in 1953 after Stalin's death. TheThaw period lasted from about 1956 toOctober 1964. The freedom of travel granted in 1972 allowed a return to the Volga, but explicitly not to the settlement inhabited before the deportation. This only became possible after theDissolution of the Soviet Union.[48]
The Volga, widened for navigation purposes with construction of huge dams during the years ofJoseph Stalin'sindustrialization, is of great importance to inland shipping and transport in Russia: all the dams in the river have been equipped with large (double)ship locks, so that vessels of considerable dimensions can travel from theCaspian Sea almost to the upstream end of the river.
This infrastructure has been designed for vessels of a relatively large scale (lock dimensions of 290 by 30 metres (951 ft × 98 ft) on the Volga, slightly smaller on some of the other rivers and canals) and it spans many thousands of kilometers. A number of formerly state-run, now mostly privatized, companies operate passenger and cargo vessels on the river;Volgotanker, with over 200petroleum tankers, is one of them.
In the laterSoviet era, up to the modern times,grain and oil have been among the largest cargo exports transported on the Volga.[49] Until recently access to the Russian waterways was granted to foreign vessels on a very limited scale. The increasing contacts between the European Union and Russia have led to new policies with regard to the access to the Russian inland waterways.[50]
The Volga at Volgograd
In some locations, the Volga has a rocky west bank.
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^Walker, Joel (2007). "Iran and Its Neighbors in Late Antiquity: Art of the Sasanian Empire (224–642 C.E.)".American Journal of Archaeology.1 11 (4): 797.doi:10.3764/aja.111.4.795.ISSN0002-9114.S2CID192943660.
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^Brunner, C. J. (1986)."ARANG".Encyclopædia Iranica.Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved13 August 2022.Middle PersianArang/Arag renders AvestanRaŋhā, which is cognate with the Scythian nameRhâ (*Rahā) transmitted by Ptolemy
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^"In all, Soviet dams flooded 2,600 villages and 165 cities, almost 78,000 sq. km. – the area of Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, and New Jersey combined – including nearly 31,000 sq. km. of agricultural land and 31,000 sq. km. of forestland". Quoted from: Paul R. Josephson.Industrialized Nature: Brute Force Technology and the Transformation of the Natural World. Island Press, 2002.ISBN1-55963-777-3. Page 31.
^Korotenko, K. A.; Mamedov, R. M.; Mooers, C. N. K. (2000). "Prediction of the Dispersal of Oil Transport in the Caspian Sea Resulting from a Continuous Release".Spill Science & Technology Bulletin.6 (5–6): 323.doi:10.1016/S1353-2561(01)00050-0.
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